Tuesday, October 26, 2010

QI: bamboo and hello

I just watched QI (Stephen Fry on the ABC), I must have learned something... Bamboo can grow up to 4 meters a day - you can actually see it grow. I think I already knew that.

The word "Hello" was invented by Edison, he thought it was a nice clear sound when he used "Haloo" (hunting call) to make his first recording. Prior to that, "Hullo" was a sound of surprise, not greeting. Hullo, what's all this then? There was something about Hello being chosen as the word you say when answering the phone.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Bitches

A good friend of mine had two rescue dogs, both female, of similar ages but she got them at separate times. The first, Jemima, was still quite young (less than a year old) when they got her, and when the second dog, Sally, came along, Jemima became the top dog even though she was a much smaller breed. Both friendly, lovely dogs, but Jemima did have a tendency to bully Sally a bit. They lived together harmoniously for a year or so. Until one day Sally snapped and nearly ripped Jemima's jugular out.

Sally was returned to the shelter and Jemima is recovering nicely. It was a big shock to the family, my friend and her 5 year old daughter saw some of the fight and it was very scary, and very hard to separate them.

Apparently, female dogs of a similar age will fight when they get old enough. And the only way my friend could separate them (the hose didn't work) was to pick up Sally's back legs and pull her away. A dangerous move.